Better Call Saul’s Big Season 6 Death Makes Mike’s Backstory More Tragic
Thought Mike's backstory was dark before? Better Call Saul season 6 just made the character infinitely more tragic. Jonathan Banks' Mike Ehrmantraut enters Breaking Bad as the go-to man for criminal operations. Feverishly professionally and ruthlessly reliable, Mike would sooner crack a smile than fail a task. Nevertheless, there's a hidden kindness beneath that gruff exterior — a family man who isn't in this business for the same greedy, egotistical reasons as Walter White and Gus Fring. Better Call Saul season 1 revealed Mike's son, Matty, was actually a cop like his dad, but got killed by officers he considered friends after turning down bribe money.
The death of his son steeps Mike Ehrmantraut in tragedy — not just because of the immense loss, but because of his own culpability. Mike was also a crooked cop who took dirty money, and encouraged his son to follow suit. Whichever way you slice it, Mike contributed to the culture of corruption that killed his son, and that specter hangs over him throughout Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad. Mike does, however, eventually find a way to potentially redeem himself — Nacho Varga.
Related: Better Call Saul Season 6's Blue Flower Secretly Connects To Kim & Walt
Like Matty, Nacho is a good soul surrounded by a dark and bitter world of criminality. Also like Matty, Nacho finds himself in too deep with the wrong people. Taking on the role of a surrogate father, Mike does his damnedest to protect Nacho from harm wherever possible, offering sage advice and repeatedly entreating Gus Fring to cut the kid some slack. In Better Call Saul season 6, Mike even risks his own neck by flat-out refusing to kidnap Nacho's father — a rare moment of defiance from the seen-it-all veteran.
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